Trainee vacancy - EU Public Affairs Consultant
About the company
DELTA-V Public Affairs is a consultancy whose aim is to help innovators innovate. Many clients tend to require hands-on support, perhaps to get their issue on the policy agenda, perhaps to aid their ‘to-market’ regulatory strategy.
The company is shaped by three principles:
Outcomes, not outputs.
Innovation, not regulatory capture.
Make the case constructively, not negative lobbying.
About the role
I am looking for a Trainee EU Public Affairs Consultant for six months, with a view to a permanent contract if things work.
You will be the first hire at DELTA-V Public Affairs. You will work directly with me on all aspects of the business from account and client management, to business development and marketing, to HR and company operations.
You will experience firsthand how a consultancy operates in its entirety – a perspective rarely offered to non-senior staff. The role will be intense and better suited to people who are comfortable with ambiguity, and don’t always need structure handed to them.
While I will remain wholly accountable for all outputs, yours will not be a back-office role. I will train and support you, so that you are quickly in a position to present and defend your work to clients, to participate in pitching new business, and to interact directly with policymakers.
Your tasks might include:
Researching and understanding policy and political developments, then turning them into short, clear briefings that help clients and inform their internal decisions.
Drafting notes, strategies, and advocacy plans, and presenting them in a way that makes complex issues easy to grasp, or delivers impact.
Going to hearings, committee meetings, and events to see how things work and starting to build your own network. Helping with outreach to policymakers.
Identifying potential clients, supporting in on new business proposals and pitches, and helping develop marketing and comms materials.
Occasionally helping with operations (<5% of your time): tracking budgets, helping with invoices or contracts, and sorting logistics for client meetings.
Training: picking a policy area or consulting skill you’re particularly interested in, learning it quickly, and taking ownership of relevant parts of client projects as you go.
What I offer
Competitive remuneration and benefits.
The exposure to, and experience of, parts of the consulting business that few other firms offer a trainee.
Flexible working hours, with the chance to often get out and about in the Brussels bubble.
If it works, I’d want this to become permanent. You’d be getting in at the ground floor of a growing agency.
Must-haves:
Curiosity and an appetite to learn: for example, you write a blog, have built a design portfolio, participate in online forums, or maintain an active GitHub.
Tenacity: willing to pick up the phone and keep going until you get an answer.
Work ethic: in micro-agencies, everyone has to pitch in. But I know it’s not easy to break into the Brussels Bubble, so pub work, supermarket shifts etc. carry just as much weight.
The ability to spot patterns early (see point one), think laterally across topics and synthesise complex issues.
Confidence presenting ideas in a way that resonates (in fluent English).
Nice-to-haves (but don’t self-select out if you don’t have these):
Hands-on policy experience in another agency or a political EU post like the SEC-GEN, a Cabinet, in the office of a Coordinator MEP.
A good command of statistics and probability, data science more generally, Python.
A proven interest in EU policy: especially financial services, energy or tech.
A reference: if you come recommended, that carries a lot of weight.
Optional – education:
I’m more interested in how you think than if/what you studied. It could be interesting to get a sociological / anthropological / data science perspective on EU affairs, for example. But I won’t prejudice based on a degree.
Please send a cover letter, CV, and anything else you think I might find interesting to brendan@deltavpublicaffairs.eu.
